Romania’s government coalition falls apart

The second-strongest party in Romania’s government has moved to the opposition benches, with its leader, Crin Antonescu, saying on Tuesday (25 February) that his liberal party had “decided to put an end” to a crisis in relations within the government.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta is expected to win a pending parliamentary vote of confidence, but the loss of Antonescu’s liberal party, the PNL, deprives him of a majority in parliament.

The PNL and Ponta’s Social Democrat Party (PSD), together with two smaller parties, won 122 of 176 parliamentary seats in elections in 2012, with 51 seats going to the liberals.

Antonescu’s decision will have a direct impact on the European Parliament elections in May, on efforts to revise the constitution, and on presidential elections scheduled for November.

The government has been working on constitutional changes that could affect the president’s powers, with an eye to a possible referendum to coincide with the European Parliament elections. Antonescu is the liberal’s candidate for the presidency; Ponta has not declared his intentions.

Announcing the withdrawal from government, Antonescu dated the crisis to Ponta’s refusal to accept a popular liberal, Klaus Johannis, as the deputy prime minister. However, the fractures between the two parties and within the government have been growing since the beginning of the year.

Antonescu’s and Ponta’s parties had always been due to run separate European campaigns, but the PSD’s recent decision to form an alliance for the election with the two other small parties in the government stoked fears among liberals that he was preparing to push the liberals aside. Three liberal ministers have resigned since 22 January, for reasons varying from a delayed response to a plane crash to anger at Ponta’s decision not to accept Johannis. One of them, the former finance minister Daniel Chitoiu, has since been placed under investigation for corruption.

The volatility in the government and within the PNL has increased pressure on Antonescu inside his party, with a tape surfacing of party members suggesting his removal.

The three-party alliance formed by Ponta for the European elections – the Social Democratic Union – has a seemingly impregnable lead, with polls suggesting a gap of about 20 percentage points between it and the PNL.

The liberals are closely followed by a new centre-right group, the Popular Movement Party (PMP), that has emerged from attempts to revive the right after its decimation in the elections of 2012.

The loss of roughly half the centre-right’s parliamentary seats in 2012 was widely attributed to the unpopularity of President Traian Ba?sescu, whom Ponta and Antonescu unsuccessfully sought to oust in a move that led to a constitutional crisis in 2012.

The PMP is widely seen as the construct of Ba?sescu. Ba?sescu, who has been head of state since 2004, cannot stand again for the presidency.